Gratitude

The practice of gratitude is, I feel, one of the most important practices you can add [easily] to your day.

Feeling grateful for what you already have not only brings more into your life, but helps you become unstuck and creates a natural flow and restores a smooth rhythm. Being grateful benefits you and those around you.

Rather than focusing on what is missing or what you want or need, focus on what you already have, right now, in this moment, today. From the fresh food in your fridge, to your home [no matter what it currently is] and the clothes you wear, the air you breathe and for all that you have around you. Be grateful for things, people, situations and environment separately. When you are truly grateful your feelings create the energy that puts your gratitude into motion, and it is those feelings associated with your gratitude that create all that comes back around to you.

To explain this further, you could simply say to yourself, ‘I am grateful for my car,’ yet not truly feel grateful. To really practise gratitude, we must feel it. If this is not something you do often it might seem a bit odd, awkward or contrived. That’s perfectly normal and OK. After all it isn’t a habit and it isn’t something we are necessarily accustomed to. The society we live in functions on wanting more. We aren’t used to be happy with what we have. Gratitude will change that. If you think about it, to bring more into your life, you really have to be grateful and happy with what you already have.

The banged up car you have, the few pennies in your bank account or your falling down house. Doesn’t matter. Feel grateful you have a beat up car or a few pennies. It is truly amazing how the practice of gratitude transforms your life. You realise that you don’t actually need all the things you think you do to make you feel happy. Being grateful for what you already have makes you realise you are ok just as you are. That isn’t to say you can’t bring more into your life, with gratitude, that happens naturally and often faster, but be ok with what you have now.

By being grateful for what you have, you begin to see that you have enough and in that realisation it can translate to ‘I am enough‘. The most common self limiting belief is the feeling of, ‘I am not good enough‘, which weaves its way throughout our whole lives and works its way into a constant, ‘not enough‘ which in one word is fundamentally, ‘need‘. When you feel you are not good enough you will find that you don’t have enough and are in a constant state of need. You don’t have enough money, you need more money. Your life mirrors your underlying feeling of not good enough by delivering poor, small and narrow.

It doesn’t matter what your current situation is. No matter how poor, dire or not enough it may seem, anything, or should I say, everything, is possible and you can turn it around. Your current situation is just a reflection of your thoughts, feelings and actions to this point. That’s ok. Start today and practice gratitude for all you have and then some. Be grateful for every detail of your life, including all those people who impact on what you have; from the person at the grocery store to the postman delivering your mail. From the penny you find on the floor to the bills you pay out.

Talking of which, have you ever noticed how much people complain about paying bills? Why not be grateful for paying the bills that put a roof over your head or food on the table every day. The money that enables you to drive a car and turn on a light switch when you walk into a room. When you practice gratitude for what you receive – and importantly, for paying for that privilege, you will find your experience transforms.

To cultivate a practice of gratitude takes time. Choose a regular time during the day when you can practise gratitude. Sometimes this can work when you are having a shower or I know someone who practises gratitude while she is driving to work. By choosing a regular time each day you are more likely to create a habit. You will notice after a short time that gratitude weaves its way into other parts of your day. After all, like attracts like. The more you are grateful, the more you will have to be grateful for.

‘Be thankful for what you have; you’ll end up having more. If you concentrate on what you don’t have, you will never, ever have enough.’ – Oprah Winfrey

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Published by Maldives for the Mind

I'm a mum, writer, photographer, brand & marketing queen and devoted practitioner of the ancient system of Ashtanga Yoga. I love nature...the ocean, warm California sunshine, trees, mountains and the sky.
I’m inspired by Buddhism and follow a different path...
Meditation and mindfulness changed my life and I've become somewhat of a meditation & mindfulness ambassador...practice, practice.
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